I apologize for the lack of knit-talk or craft-talk. This has been a nutso week, which culminated yesterday with my having four meetings to attend between 2 pm and 6:30 pm.

But: here's the Friday Five!

1. How many houses/apartments have you lived in throughout your life?

Six. There was the house my family owned when I was born, the house where I grew up, an apartment when I was in college, my parent's house in Illinois (their current house), the apartment I lived in for a couple years here, and now my house.

2. Which was your favorite and why?

My house. I mean the one I own now. It's my favorite, partly because I own it and it's all mine, and partly because it's just a neat house - it was built in the 1940s and it has hardwood floors and big windows and glass doorknobs. It always feels good to come home to it. Maybe I'm being superstitious here, but I also think the house "welcomed" me when I moved in - the day I bought it, I drove up to the house and found wild orchids (nodding ladies' tresses) blooming in the front yard. As I am a botanist, this excited me greatly.

3. Do you find moving house more exciting or stressful? Why?

Stressful. I always worry that something I treasure will get lost or broken. Also, I have a lot of stuff to move. And I tend to get attached to the places where I live - even places I don't particularly like in the end (like the last apartment I lived in) and it feels sad to leave them.

4. What's more important, location or price?

Hard question. I guess I'd have to say location - when I got my first apartment (as a college student), I chose to pay more a month (and wound up eating rice and beans a lot, and never going to the movies, and limiting what other stuff I bought) so I could have an apartment in a secured building, rather than an apartment in a building where one good kick would put a "bad guy" into my apartment to steal my stuff or worse.

5. What features does your dream house have (pool, spa bath, big yard, etc.)?

Hardwood floors, good woodwork throughout, working fireplace, big wide windowsills for growing plants on (with sufficient sun coming in the windows for this), a greenhouse on the back, a big garden, a library, a sewing room, a big storage room for my yarn and fabric, a kitchen with a restaurant-grade gas stove and a Sub-Zero refrigerator (and an island, and tons of counter space), a bathroom with both a shower stall and a soaking tub, a couple guest bedrooms.

Oh, and having the house be self-cleaning would be important too :)